EPA employees await decision on their administrative leave status amid termination of collective bargaining rights

On August 15, EPA employees placed on administrative leave for signing the Declaration of Dissent will learn what comes next.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 13, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On August 1, over 150 employees of the EPA had their administrative leave status extended. On August 15th, they will learn what comes next. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin placed the employees on administrative leave and under internal investigation, an apparently punitive act for publicly signing the EPA Declaration of Dissent. An additional 481 EPA employees have signed the Declaration anonymously for fear of adverse employment actions.

The EPA Declaration of Dissent denounces the Trump administration's policies that undermine public trust and sideline scientific evidence, compromising the agency's mission "to protect human health and the environment." Policies such as the decision to rescind the EPA's 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, a science-backed determination that greenhouse gases harm public health and wreak havoc on the environment. Repealing the Endangerment Finding will disable the EPA's regulatory role in limiting pollutants that accelerate climate change and threaten public health.

On August 8th, the EPA terminated bargaining rights agreements, stripping federal labor unions of official recognition, and ending employees' rights to grievance and recourse. Stand Up For Science condemns the capricious and arbitrary decision to place the "EPA 150" on extended administrative leave and calls for their immediate reinstatement to regular duty and restoration of their collective bargaining rights.

Stand Up for Science Executive Director, Colette Delawalla, is available to discuss the organization's advocacy actions to save science and call on legislators to act.

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About Stand Up for Science:
Stand Up for Science is a grassroots Washington, D.C. based 501(c)4 non-profit organization mobilizing the fight for science and democracy. We formed Stand Up for Science within days of executive orders breaking down federal science agencies. Weeks later, on March 7th, our first National Day of Action, we mobilized over 50,000 people at 170+ events across the world in support of science. Stand Up for Science has captured widespread national and international media attention, and federal scientists across multiple agencies (i.e., NIH, EPA and NASA) have chosen Stand Up for Science as the platform for their dissent against this administration. An opinion piece written by our founding leadership team is also available in Nature Human Behavior: “Why we organized ‘Stand Up for Science.’”

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Brian Lovett
Stand Up for Science
media@standupforscience.net

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